The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B Ministry), on Friday, ordered the blocking of 35 YouTube channels, two Twitter accounts, two Instagram accounts, two websites, and a Facebook account for spreading ‘anti-India propaganda’ and ‘fake news’.
Vikram Sahay, the joint secretary of the I&B Ministry said, “The common factor amongst all these accounts have been that they operate from Pakistan and spread fake anti-India news and other content”.
The channels were featuring content on the death of late Chief of Defence staff Gen. Bipin Rawat, public order, separatism and the Indian army.
The ministry said that their direction to the Department of Telecom and internet service providers to block these channels is underway.
After receiving intelligence inputs about the channels on Thursday, the ministry issued five separate orders to block their content. According to a report by the Indian Express, all 35 YouTube accounts were operating from Pakistan and two of them were identified as ‘Apni Duniya Network’ and ‘Talha Films Network’. While ‘Apni Duniya Network’ was operating 14 channels, ‘Talha’ was operating 13 YouTube channels. The ministry believes that all these accounts were operating with “a single goal of spreading fake news oriented towards the Indian audience.”
According to ANI, these channels also boasted of a huge subscriber and viewership count. “They are YouTube channels with a 1.20 crore subscriber base, 130 crore views. Now since this process has started, I’m sure that more and more such channels will get blocked. Our Intelligence agencies are at work. We’ll look forward to your support too,” said I&B Ministry Secretary Apurva Chandra.
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Earlier in December last year, the I&B Ministry had blocked 20 Pakistan-based YouTube channels and two websites under the IT Rules, 2021. The channels had a combined subscriber base of 35 lakh and their content was viewed more than 55 crore times. The Scroll reported that the channels were part of a network called the ‘Naya Pakistan Group’ and were being operated by Pakistani news anchors.